Fantasy fiction for those who don’t generally swing that way..

When it comes to speculative fiction I’m more of a science fiction than a fantasy fan but despite my avoidance of elves and fairies and even wizards I have found a few books that were very good. (I’ve already raved about Thomas Berger’s Arthurian fantasy Arthur Rex, which I had mistakenly classified as magical realism).

1. Flann O’Brien’s Third Policeman

One of my all time favourite writers, Flann O’Brien was an enigmatic character who deliberately mislead all looking for biographical information, using a number of different names, changing his birthdate with his mood and generally having little truck with convention. Though Third Policeman is tops in my books, At Swim Two Birds is close on its heels. Its a book with three beginnings and three endings, with the author as a character, and Irish mythical creatures turned into the mix along with every Celtic cliche and homily in existence.

In the Third Policeman, a man ends up in an odd land where policeman arrest bicycles, and where one of the officers makes things too strange to contemplate without suffering discomfort. Its one of the funniest books I have ever read.

2. Lucius Shepard’s At the Ends of the Earth

I have not read this in some time. I first loved Shepard’s hallucinogenic military magical realism of Life During Wartime. Since then he’s proven himself to be a remarkably ranging sort not unlike William Vollmann, writing not only fiction but tales of riding the rails, odd non fiction forays, horror and fantasy novels, and great short stories. And great short stories is what Ends of the Earth is about. Dislocated sorts on the move in foreign lands. Beautiful stories where something is just a little off kilter.

3. James Morrow’s trilogy: Towing Jehovah, Blameless in Abaddon, and the Eternal Footman

The smartest fantasy about. Its a crime that this author is so little known. In this trilogy, the body of God has been found floating in the north ocean and the disgraced captain of a oil tanker that spilled is enlisted to tow the body south. In subsequent books, the body becomes part of a theme park. The trilogy goes through theological arguments of all sorts and confronts the idea of humanity reacting to the knowledge of not only the existence but also the death of God.

4. Thomas M. Disch’s The Priest

The author of The Brave Little Toaster series is considerably darker here where the protagonist finds himself inhabiting the body of a pedophile priest. Its brilliant and disturbing. Disch has been writing great science fiction/fantasy short stories reminiscent of Kafka but this one really hits the mark.
5. Jim Dodge’s Fup

This is the story of a duck, an old man, a monster pig, and some potent moonshine. A slim volume, a tall tale more than anything. One of a kind, this is worth rereading again and again. His next book Not Fade Away is good too, featuring a rambling hippy ghost tow truck driver. Kerouac on drugs.

6. Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy.

Don’t have to tell you anything about this I’m sure but they are strong stuff.

7. George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones

Martin has been writing forever but struck series gold with this one. I’ve given up on it since its not finished despite having been started almost ten years ago but what a book! The following one was great as well. This is a knights and castles sort of tale with just a touch of dragon. Thousands of characters but somehow not difficult to keep separate.

8. Corey Doctorow’s Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town

Loved the idea here where the father is a mountain, the mother a washing machine, the main character sort of normal, one of his brothers is dead but mobile, another a set of Russian nesting dolls and another a lake. What madness and what fun. And it works without being simply flitty.